A new study, recently published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine, led by Prof. Amichai Shatner of the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center, analyzes the data of patients treated in controlled trials and finds that the drug colchicine is also effective in treating severe coronary heart disease.
Colchicine is a medicine from ancient Greece, originating from the saffron plant, which was known in ancient times for its special healing properties, and is one of the few medicines that survived until modern times.
Whereas in the past colchicine was used only to treat and prevent attacks of gout, a 50-year-old discovery, confirmed by studies at Tel Hashomer and Hadassah Medical Center, has shown that colchicine is also very effective against hereditary inflammatory disease, known as Mediterranean fever. .
As for the corona epidemic, four controlled studies have so far been published examining the effect of colchicine supplementation in nearly 6,000 corona patients. It was found that patients who received colchicine showed a significant improvement in severe corona indices, and most importantly – there was a 50% reduction in mortality compared to those who did not receive colchicine.
Prof. Shatner noted: “Thanks to its cheap price and safety of use, the effectiveness of colchicine in the treatment of corona is an important discovery that could significantly contribute to improving the morbidity and mortality of many patients, if confirmed in further studies. The result is particularly surprising “New uses are being discovered for it, and it is possible that future studies will establish its usefulness in other situations.”
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